Fund created to help North Alabama women travel to Tuscaloosa or Nashville for abortions

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – Reproductive rights supporters are stepping in to help fill the gap caused by the closing of North Alabama's only abortion clinic late last month.

Alabama Reproductive Rights Advocates started a fund on July 5 to raise money for Huntsville-area women who now have to drive to Tuscaloosa or Nashville to end their pregnancy.

More than $2,500 has been donated so far on the group's Crowdtilt.com page to help offset the cost of travel, abortion procedures, pregnancy tests and birth control.

Pamela Watters. (Kay Campbell | kcampbell@al.com)

"We raised about $1,500 in less than 24 hours after launching the fund," Pam Watters, the organization's director, told AL.com Wednesday. "Our goal is $5,000."

She said Alabama Reproductive Rights Advocates, which formed in May, is directing Huntsville-area women to Planned Parenthood in Nashville or West Alabama Women's Center in Tuscaloosa.

The Tuscaloosa clinic is one of just three licensed abortion providers remaining in the state, and the closest to North Alabama. The others are in Montgomery and Mobile.

Alabama Women's Center for Reproductive Alternatives in Huntsville shut its doors on June 27. The cramped building on Madison Street could not be retrofitted to comply with the Alabama Women's Health and Safety Act, which requires abortion clinics to meet the same building standards as ambulatory surgical centers.